Haunted
by KelliP
Summary: It's Halloween time, and Castle is a little... terrified. Written for the 12th Precinct's Halloween comp.


**Haunted**

* * *

Castle can't remember why he'd thought this would be a good idea.

He likes to talk a big game. He's wrapped himself up in murder and death for the entirety of his adult life, so why shouldn't he? Says he's one of the crew, working homicides with the NYPD and chasing down murderers. He deals with chilling moments in the midst of a good mystery day in and day out. He dreams about it, writes about it, lives and breathes it- it completely surrounds him.

Right now, though, he's a little… terrified.

* * *

They've just arrived at a Halloween fair somewhere in Jersey. Kate's idea. She thought it would be a fun night, just the two of them. His annual Halloween party is tomorrow, which means they'll be back to their usual sneaking around. Hopefully he'll be able to convince her into a secret rendezvous in the middle of the night (though, with her, these sorts of things don't really take much convincing).

Snapping back to the present, Castle jumps out of his car and slams the door shut behind him. It's another moment before he realises his mistake, when he goes to take a step and falls flat on his face because his cape is stuck in the damned door.

He'd like to blame it on the cape (because, really- does a cape need to be this long?) but it's his own fault. He _is_ the one who'd been a little unoriginal with his choice of costume this year.

A vampire.

In his own defence, he's been… _preoccupied_. With Kate. So when he'd been reminded about Halloween only two weeks ago, he had no time to organise something a little more extravagant. Now he's stuck with this mundane costume that gets caught in car doors and makes him look like the idiot he really is.

He's still on the ground when the sound of Kate's chuckling fills his ears. Cheeks heating up, he tilts his face up off the ground, only to be met with the point of her black, leather boots.

He gulps.

Slowly, he lifts his eyes. Castle lets them rake unashamedly up her legs and over her body once again. When he finally catches her eye, she's smirking down at him at his typical man behaviour. Can she really blame him, though, when she's dressed like _that_?

Catwoman.

That had been her brilliant idea. Thigh high boots and tight black leather. She even has a classic bullwhip for full effect.

He doesn't know how she expects him to keep in control of himself.

"You know," he stutters on a breath, taking the hand she's offering him to ungraciously stumble to his feet, "I thought you said your favourite comic book character was Elektra?"

She draws her lower lip between her teeth, eyes flicking down to his parted mouth for just a second before once again meeting his eyes. "You don't like my costume?" Kate purrs her question, leaning in to graze her body against his, drawing in a long breath and sighing it out slowly.

Oh, yes. He likes it very much indeed. He can't wait to show her just how much he likes it. Repeatedly.

And just when he moves to start showing her exactly how much-

She walks away, her hips swaying ever so enticingly and not at all innocent.

Tease.

By the time Castle shakes himself from his stupor, she's smiling at the pimply-faced cashier as she hands over their pre-paid tickets. The teen visibly gulps, eyes straining with the effort it takes him not to drop his eyes and stare inappropriately at the woman before him. But before the boy can even offer them a smile and a _have a nice night_, Kate is already walking through the large metal gates that are hanging off their hinges for effect.

Once again, Castle finds himself bounding after her like an eager puppy. There's another smirk on his face when he jumps to her side, but she doesn't say anything. Just slips her fingers in between his like it's the most normal thing in the world. To him, it's not enough, so he drops her fingers and instead snakes an arm around her waist. It _is_ the one time they can act like a couple in public, after all, so he's going to make damn sure he milks every last second of it.

Kate's too busy glancing at the fair around them to even comment at his action, taking in the cobwebs and the jack-o-lanterns and the bloody tombstones with hands rising from the dirt. Castle does his own search of the fair, making note of the different attractions and judging everyone's costumes. With the movies released only a few months previous, there's an array of superhero costumes littering the fair. There's Captain America and Iron Man and Batman galore, some costumes almost complete replicas and others obviously last minute. Of course, there's also a great deal of woman dressed as Catwoman, though none of them hold a candle to Kate.

Yes, Castle admits that he might be biased, but the stares Kate's receiving from every single person they pass don't lie. Men, women- it doesn't matter. They either want to be like her, or they want her.

Castle frowns, because _they can't have her_. She's _his_, and he wants everyone to know it. However, he knows marking his territory won't get him anywhere, and so he clenches his jaw and swallows the rising urge to jump her right here in front of everyone.

At least, that was his plan. As they wander further into the fair, the turning heads become increasingly obvious. At least, to him they do. Kate seems completely oblivious to it (though, he wonders if she's just putting on an act on his behalf). Surely she has to know exactly what she's doing to every man here. She may be not be showing any skin, but dressed in that tight, black leather that hugs her every curve…

Castle yelps in surprise when an inappropriate pinch brings him back to the present. He jumps a little at the touch, mouth parting as he angles his head towards Kate. She's grinning at him with those alluring eyes, and Castle can see she knows _exactly_ the way everyone is looking at her.

Has this been her plan all along? Dress in tight black leather and have everyone staring at her to drive him wild?

If it is, it's working. He's completely turned on and raging with jealousy at the same time. So when one man actually has the audacity to wolf-whistle at her, Castle growls.

He's done with this.

Fingers digging into her hipbone, he half-drags around the fair, looking for somewhere- _anywhere_- to get her away from all the ogling eyes. She must understand just what he's feeling right now because she goes along with him, lets him pull her along beside him. He finally stops a minute later when he spots it.

The Haunted Mansion.

A dark maze spread over three stories in what's built to be like an abandoned house, it's perfect from keeping her away from others. Judging by the queue outside, it's not an in-and-out-in-three-minutes kind of attraction. He can keep her all to himself for a while.

"You sure you can handle this, Castle?" Kate teases him in a sing-song voice, but he's far passed amused. He thrusts their fast-tracked tickets over to the kid manning the attraction and drags her inside without another word.

When he stumbles to a sudden stop in the pitch-black darkness, her body falls against the length of his. Castle grits his teeth when she doesn't move away, instead slinking her fingers around his waist to lock together at his front, her forehead pressing between his shoulder blades.

"It's not too late to turn back," Kate whispers against his skin. He shivers, but doesn't back down. Instead, he pulls her hands from around his waist, laces his fingers with hers, and pulls her along behind him as he moves forward into the blackness.

It isn't long before he smashes face-first into a wall. Padded, it doesn't hurt, but his pride is wounded when Kate chuckles softly behind him. Clenching his jaw stubbornly, he presses on. Ducks under cobwebs when they wrap around his face, skittles away from the low and rumbling growls to his right, climbs the dimly-lit staircase to the second level. He's just about sure he has himself under control when someone dressed as Leatherface wielding a chainsaw jumps out at them suddenly, and Castle can't stop himself from leaping back into the safety of Kate's arms.

"It's not _funny_," he whines upon the sound of her laughter.

"How about I go first for a while?" she proposes, squeezing his hands before dropping them to brush by him. As always, he follows, keeping close as they squeeze through the half-cracked open door and into the next room. When the door slams shut behind them, he jumps, neck snapping as he whips around at the sound. Satisfied there's nothing creeping up behind them, Castle breathes out a long sigh of relief, whirling back around to Kate.

That's when he realises he's lost her.

She was right in front of him just a moment ago, but now, she's gone. Castle turns on the spot slowly, eyes squinting in the dark, but he wouldn't even have a chance of seeing his hand if he put it right in front of his face.

"Kate?" he calls out hesitantly.

No response.

He tries again. "Kate?"

His voice is a little louder this time, but there's still nothing but silence. Heart pounding in his chest, Castle sucks in a deep breath.

Okay. He can do this.

Raising his hands in front of him, Castle feels the air around him, but his fingertips can't find anything. Somewhere above him, a terrified scream pierces through the air. He jumps back in response, groaning when his elbow comes into contact with the door. Palms beginning to sweat, he rubs them along the fabric of his pants as he takes a few cautious steps further into the room.

Suddenly, there's the tell-tale scrape of a footstep somewhere off to his left. Castle spins around, hands ready in what mimics a classic karate pose, but he moves so fast he can't even be sure he hasn't turned too far.

Then another shuffle sounds behind him. He does a one-eighty, eyes wide as they desperately try to adjust to the absolute blackness surrounding him.

In this moment, Castle can't remember why he'd thought this would be a good idea.

He likes to talk a big game. He's wrapped himself up in murder and death for the entirety of his adult life, so why shouldn't he? Says he's one of the crew, working homicides with the NYPD and chasing down murderers. He deals with chilling moments in the midst of a good mystery day in and day out. He dreams about it, writes about it, lives and breathes it- it completely surrounds him.

Right now, though, he's a little… terrified. Away from here- in the real world with madmen and guns and all kinds of explosives- he has Kate to protect him. His fierce girlfriend, who carries her own weapon and is expertly trained in at least ten different kinds of hand-to-hand combat.

But here, right now? He's on his own, and even though it's just a _haunted house_ at some freaking _Halloween fair _in _Jersey_, the stark reality is petrifying.

The shrill sound of nails being scraped down a blackboard resonates throughout the room. Castle swears he can see the shadowy outlines of something gliding through the room, dipping just above his head before it circles back up to the ceiling.

He gulps. It's just his imagination. Just his overactive writers imagination, that's often carried away over nothing. Everything's fine. He's perfectly fine.

He's not.

Suddenly, he's attack from behind. Something jumps on him, and his only response is to scream. It's high-pitched and girly, but he doesn't care, because whatever it is that's just jumped on him has him gripped in a bear hug.

Before he can even move, that _thing_ is biting down on the tendons of his neck. Castle stretches, trying to move away, but it only opens more skin, teeth digging into his skin.

He can't believe that this is it. This is how he's going to die. A vampire attack at some stupid Halloween fair in Jersey. He considers only for a moment how fateful it is that he's going to die at the hands of a vampire when he's dressed just like one before the panic sets back in. He throws his hands up wildly into the air in what is supposed to be an attack, but is really just him being terrified, and he's just about to make a break for it and find a wall to smash into and hopefully _kill it_ when the vampire _giggles_.

Castle freezes.

"Kate?" he cries out, his voice choking and squeaking and doing all kinds of things he wishes it wouldn't.

The giggling continues for another moment before she's pressing her open mouth to his neck to suck on her bite, the tip of her tongue tracing over the bumpy marks her teeth have left. Despite the terror still racing through him from just moments ago, Castle has to hold back a moan at the feel of her tongue (he's a man, after all) because she is _not_ getting away with this.

"Oh, Kate," he groans. His cheeks flush a deep shade of red, and he's suddenly immensely thankful for the pitch-black darkness surrounding them. "Kate, that's not- I mean, I- that wasn't _funny_," he whines, not at all caring he sounds like a petulant child.

"It was a little," she disagrees on a chuckle.

He sulks in silence.

"And that squeal you let out? Very manly Castle," she teases, her laughter ringing loud again. In the blackness, Castle frowns, but slides his hands underneath her knees to support her before they both topple.

"It was a scream," he huffs.

"Is that really any better?"

"It was a yelp," he changes his mind.

"Don't worry," she whispers, flirtatious fingertips trailing underneath his shirt and down his bare chest. "I'll protect you."

And then the sound of her whip cracks through the air.

_Hot_.

Castle's mood shifts instantly, going from absolutely terrified to _very_ aroused in less than a second. His thumb begins to rub over her knee, fingers slipping up higher on the underneath of her thigh.

"I promise to make it up to you," Kate whispers sultrily in his ear, her breath hot and ever so enticing on his neck.

And when her lips return to his bare skin, teeth grazing and tongue soothing, Castle hums in all kinds of pleasure.

Maybe this isn't half bad after all.


End file.
